I can haz job now???

[MichaelHenson]

Yeah, if you're looking for modifiers, just snag a couple cheap diffused umbrellas off eBay or something. I got two for $11 about a year ago and use them all the time!

 

[Stradawhovious]

Yeah, if you're looking for modifiers, just snag a couple cheap diffused umbrellas off eBay or something. I got two for $11 about a year ago and use them all the time!

Groovie. Totally forgot about umbrellas... which is embarrassing since I have a bunch of them. None big enough to make a difference over the soft boxes, but they are cheaper than new strobes!

 

[Stradawhovious]

I just thought of something; when you're getting set up with some strange dog, hit the "test" button once or twice to see how the dog will react. The owner can help keep him calm, and reassure him that it really isn't dangerous.

Important safety tip, Egon.


And a hell of a good idea to boot!

 

[limr]

Can't help much in terms of the studio advice, but along the lines of making your subjects more comfortable, for the more nervous dogs, maybe ask the owner to bring a favorite blanket or shirt - something that smells like the owner. It might help keep the dog calmer.

 

[Derrel]

The closer your lights are, the softer they are, sure. I would light with a main light fired though at least a 4x6 foot panel covered with fabric or diffusion material like shower curtain. A similar sized reflective white panel camera right would make a good bounce-fill. Overhead light from behind, and above for separation. Muslin backdrops would work well. Agreed--make the shooting area a raised platform, and put a fence on the sides, for animal containment.

I would do this: install an overhead 4 foot by 6 foot wide PVC pipe or wooden frame fitted with a white diffusing front panel. Angle the panel slightly forward toward the camera. Put foam board side-skirts on the panel, and a fairly deep, 18 to 24 inch deep black foam-board light blocking strip that keeps the lens from being flared. Aim two flash units inside, firing in from a hole cut into each side-skirt panel. This would be your overhead Top Lighter or Skylighter, pretty much left on on every single shot as a soft, overhead hairlight/separation light. It would be permanently affixed to the ceiling.

Here's an old sketch, complete with the simulated degree of light fall-off you could expect if you fired ONE, single light into the overhead box, from the left side. This allows you to create a stronger light on the left side, but to still have some top light from the shadow side. In a small studio, you'd probably want a back skirt, to keep black backdrops pure black.

For a main light, I would light using a BIG panel...the cheapest is a diffused, frosted shower curtain stretched tight...say 72 x 72 inches square, on a rolling, light-gauge steel pipe garment hanging rack,like the ones linked to below

http://www.wayfair.com/Richards-Hom...Garment-Rack-Clothes-Hanger-320-VUQA1304.html
Free Standing Storage Rolling Garment Rack Clothes Hanger by Richards Homewares
or a bigger one. http://www.wayfair.com/Richards-Hom...-Commercial-Garment-Rack-9550KD-VUQA1229.html

Why? Simple. CHEAP. On a wheeled base! Ready for a $5 shower curtain, or even two…eliminates need for two light stands. Makes a great base to mount foam-boards, or other fabrics. Small one is like $24, the big one is $71, but it eliminates two light stands and a crossbar, AND it rolls. Diffusing panels are $5.99-$7.98, shower curtain rings $1.99 a set.

 

[Stradawhovious]

[all kinds of incredibly useful stuff in the above post]

Wow. That's indeed helpful! I love the idea of the top light, and will likely use it. The side light, as much as I love it, I like the idea of being able to raise it if I want, and have it more portable. What's stopping me from making a modifier like the one for the top light, and using that for my main? Maybe a 4'x4' square that can be mounted to booms? Just thinking out lour here...

Thanks for being so incredibly helpful with this... All of you! I have a short honey-do list this weekend, but have the rest of the time off. I may have do dig out my PVC cement and start working on this stuff.

 

[Derrel]

Lighting with scrims is a super-versatile method. The beauty is that the strobes can be fired through the panels AND also if desired, some raw light can also be allowed to fire over the top of or off past one side of the panel, so that raw light can strike say, a background, or a wall, or a reflector panel, in effect making one light in to two, or even three sources of light. I am NOT kidding about this, in any way.

Look for the Dean Collins on YouTube. Watch DVD 1 - Finelight Portraiture, and watch DVD 3 - Finelight Portraiture Large Set--these are on YouTube right now, today.

The above setup has a 24 square-foot overhead light, and a 36 square-foot main light source, and the idea is to create a very large diffusing panel. A 4x4 foot panel would be a 16 square-foot panel, and will create a harder light, yet that's not necessarily bad. Panels allow you to position the source of the light in different ways, and different distances. You could make PVC scrims ("panels") of any size you like. How to hold and position them is an issue you need to address: you need clamps, locking clamps, etc. See the PDF below:

Dean Collins pioneered many DIY-made PVC light modifiers. Here's a free PDF blueprint book.http://blog.nextdayflyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/1Tinker-Tubes.pdf

Matthews, Scrim Jim, California Sunbounce, all these names have great factory-made products. Many are expensive--but I want you to realize that making your panels in THEIR standard sizes is a very smart idea, since they have a lot of very nice fabrics and it'd be great to be able to access those.

Being able to raise and fly a panel over the shooting area is something that can be done using 1/4 inch rope. Lights would be moved in and placed on booms. How to position panels is almost unlimited.

 

[Stradawhovious]

Look for the Dean Collins on YouTube. Watch DVD 1 - Finelight Portraiture, and watch DVD 3 - Finelight Portraiture Large Set--these are on YouTube right now, today.

TO THE YOUTUBES!!! I will be back in 3 hours.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I didn't expect the picture to be that good from what you described, maybe you're doing better than you realize.

If you haven't already at some point you probably need to start looking at licensing and usage and all that fun stuff thru PPA or Agence de Médecine Préventive. You may not expect to need to use it but all it will take is one wackadoo situation to give you grief.

Working with kids and having done home visits I often also 'visited' with the family pets... lol ... and I think like kids do, the pet might react to a stranger based on the parent/adult human being's response. If you chat with the person and they get comfortable the dog might figure you're okay and they don't have to protect their person. Of course a photo session may not be long enough for a pet to become comfortable around you, where doing home visits sometimes I think a pet thought I was there to see them instead of the kid! lol

 

[spiralout462]

I'm always shocked at what people will do for their dogs! If your area is anything like mine I'm sure you'll have lots of takers, on their way home from the doggy spa.

 

[beachrat]

Dean Collins pioneered many DIY-made PVC light modifiers. Here's a free PDF blueprint book.http://blog.nextdayflyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/1Tinker-Tubes.pdf

Dean Collins' Tinker Tubes gave me so many ideas,that my wife thought I was building a new bathroom in my detached garage when I came home with all the PVC pipe and fittings that I bought.
Then came the yards and yards of ripstop nylon.
And me trying to use a sewing machine.
Thank God she took over from there.

edit: Forgot to add that the shot you posted looks pretty damned good to me. Mountain Dog?

 

[Stradawhovious]

edit: Forgot to add that the shot you posted looks pretty damned good to me. Mountain Dog?

Yep! Berner named Bocephus. And thanks for the compliment!

In looking through the Tinker Tubes manual, I think I will make a couple of the Self Standing Panels, and one of the Background and Separation panels.

That manual is fanastical!

Also, I've been talking with my wife about this whole thing, and she has been more than supportive. As a matter of fact, she is all but insisting I take this step, offered to help along the way and gave me a pass financially to get the gear I need to outfit a basic studio.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my wife?

 

[Designer]

When you guys get your panels assembled, let me know how sturdy they are. From just looking at the manual (thanks, Derrel!) they look like they might be "wiggly".

 

[Stradawhovious]

When you guys get your panels assembled, let me know how sturdy they are. From just looking at the manual (thanks, Derrel!) they look like they might be "wiggly".

The manual said to reinforce the long spans of 3/4" pvc with 1/2" conduit pipe. That ought to firm it right up.

 

[beachrat]

When you guys get your panels assembled, let me know how sturdy they are. From just looking at the manual (thanks, Derrel!) they look like they might be "wiggly".

Been making them for a few years now.
Plenty of ways to stiffen them up if they start getting big.
Larger panels get a tee fitting and cross bars to stiffen them up wherever necessary,and cheap "A" clamps do alot of temporary work too.